The Path to Happiness
by Forever-Tee
Summary: What if the two groups had came together after The Passing? Will they finally find somewhere safe and find happiness? Inspired by a quote I heard. It will eventually be ZoeyxEllis and either RochellexFrancis or RochellexNick I'm not sure yet.
1. Moving

**First fanfiction written for Left 4 Dead, I know that the storyline might be slow at start but I hope you guys like it.**

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It's hard leaving everything behind. First, at the age of 10, I moved house with my dad after he broke up with my mom, then at 19 I left my father's house and started living on my own; moving to a different state to try and pursue a career as a film maker. Then at 20, I went home to my parents having a heated argument over my future. I can picture it now, as if it were only yesterday.

I leave the room for a few minutes and when I go back, my dad is holding my mom in his arms, blood everywhere and a guy laying dead near them. My father commands me to call an ambulance and when I again re enter the room, I see my mom ripping my dad's throat out with her teeth. As I go more into the room my mother's blank gaze switches to me and she releases my dad and comes for me; I close my eyes tight and hear a gunshot. When I open my eyes my mom is lying at my feet, a gaping hole in her back. I rush to my dad's side and he begs me- orders me in fact- to kill him, I refuse at first but he insists, it's the only way. I agree to his request. "I love you dad." I close my eyes and pull the trigger.

I still have nightmares of it every time sleep overwhelms me. After that I left the house, grabbing my dad's twin pistols. I didn't know what to expect when I left the house, but I never imagined it to be as bad as it was.

And now. We can't stay in one place for more than a few days and every time I think we're safe something fucks it up and we have to leave again. We're currently holding up a bridge. Me, Francis and Louis have been together since the start, minus Bill. God rest his soul. if there is a God which I'm seriously starting to doubt at this point. I'm waiting for something to happen. We've been here for about a week already, I'm not entirely sure, but when I see the sun rise I've been scratching a line on the control panel door with a rock. It seems quite prison like but it helps keep me sane.

From the other side of the bridge I hear voices. When I spot Francis and Louis nowhere near where the voice came from I decide to investigate, grabbing a rifle leaning against the railing as I walk past and lean over the edge. As I look down I can see four figures and a blue car.

"Alive?" I call, holding my gun up above the railing and pointing it down at the figures. Startled, the four figures turn towards me, their hands in the air.

"We're alive, please don't shoot us!" One of the four call back, his face covered by a blue cap.

"Okay..." I lower the gun "...So what do you want?" I question leaning forwards slightly.

"We were wonderin' if you could lower the bridge so's we can come through" The one with the cap answered, all of them still not looking up at me. I ponder the request for a while before gripping the railing with my hands and leaning even further forwards.

"Hey what's your names?" Slowly I watch as all of their heads turn up to look at me, now noticing that they don't have a gun pointed at them.

"Ellis" I barely hear the one with the cap say. I turn my gaze to the other strangers.

"What about you Colonel Sanders?" I ask the man in a white suit.

"It's Nick!" he shouts back, obviously annoyed at the quip. I roll my eyes and look to the only female.

"I'm Rochelle" she says, I look to the last person.

"My name's Coach" I nod at their responses and study them for a few seconds.

"Well I'm sorry! But we can't lower the bridge. You're gonna need to get to the other side of the bridge, we can help you then. And then once you get over here we can fill up the generator. The generator will make a lot of noise, but don't worry... Ellis was it? We can cover you from up here. You got all that?" after a few seconds I notice Rochelle mumble something to Ellis. He mutters a response i'm unable to make out, his eyes not leaving me.

"He's got it!" Rochelle finally responds, I nod and watch as they walk away.

"What was that all about?" Francis asks me as I come back.

"A group of survivors want to cross the bridge" I say as I put the rifle back where i found it.

"And?" Louis inquires. I walk over to them and sit on the floor opposite Louis.

"I said we would help them."

"What!" They exclaim in unison.

"They're the only survivors we've seen since this whole apocalypse started and I think we should help them" I reasoned.

"I hate helping people" Francis responded, I sigh and shake my head.

"Well it's too late, I've already said we'd help"

"Zoey! What if they come up here and steal our supplies ?!"

"Now Francis, I'm sure they're good people, and I trust Zoey's judge of character" Louis says being our voice of reason since Bill sacrificed himself for us.

"Fine" Francis says crossing his arms "But I'm not trusting them until I see them"

"Suit yourself Francis" I declare standing up "I'm going to wait for them on the other side of the bridge" I walk away from them and sit on the floor near where they should appear, reloading my pistols while I wait. However long it may be.

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**I hope you guys liked the first chapter, sorry if some of the grammar is off, I'll go through it soon, I just wanted to get this posted as soon as possible. And please review, it will be appreciated  
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	2. Waiting

**Second chapter, sorry it's short but I want to have one whole chapter when they fill up the generator. Also I forgot to mention that I don't own Left 4 Dead 1 or 2...oops. Also I thought the "house" thing was close to the bridge than it actually is but I like it the way it is so I'm leaving it.  
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Roughly two hours later, according to the sun's position, Francis appears by my side, with Louis leaning on his shoulder. He rests him on the ground and goes to lean against the railing. The strangers appear behind him.

"Hey, you made it!" Louis exclaims, alerting Francis to the company.

"Yeah no thanks to you; you could've just lowered the bridge and we'd be outta you're hair right now and half way home. What happens now then?" I could smell faint sewage. I guess there journey was as bad as they said then.

"Don't be ungrateful. These kind people could've just turned their backs on us." Ellis scolds Nick. Louis seems uneasy from the strangers banter.

"Erm, yeah, anyway. Where you heading to?" Ellis looks from me to Louis then back again.

"New Orleans. Hey y'all wanna come with us?" He seems hopeful. It's cute.

"No we're good." Francis sneers before I could get a chance to answer. Why's he being so rude? Ellis looks away crestfallen.

"The generator is just down the elevator, we'll cover you from up here" Louis retorts. They nod and start walking toward the elevator.

"Hey, what are your names anyway?" Nick inquires before they step into the elevator.

"Francis."

"I'm Louis."

"And what about you cupcake?" Nick asks. It seems he can't help but be condescending.

"My name is Zoey. Don't call me cupcake Colonel Sanders" I respond glaring at him

"It's Nick and you know it" He replies smugly, I roll my eyes as they start the elevator.

"Don't get yourselves killed!" I call after them. As the elevator descends, Francis and I help Louis off the floor.

"So their names are?" Francis asks.

"Nick, Coach, Rochelle and Ellis" I reply while I help Louis up the ladder.

"And which is which?" Louis inquires as he pulls himself up. I wait until we're all up the ladder before responding. We start walking over to the abandoned house nearby, helping Louis across.

"Well obviously the woman is Rochelle, she is the only girl after all, so that's obvious. You heard the guy in the white suit say he was Nick. The guy in the cap is Ellis and Coach is the other guy."

"Seems like that Ellis kid has a thing for you" Francis says climbing over the railing separating the bridge and the house.

"Nooo...You think so?" I ask as I grab our guns.

"That boy's eyes didn't leave you once," Louis comments swinging his legs over the railing.

"Sure they did," I say as I hand the guns to Francis.

"Yeah but they tried not to" Louis laughs, I chuckle.

"It's a shame Francis had to straight out decline his request of going with them" I state as I climb over the railing.

"Why?" Louis asks leaning himself against the railing.

"He's kinda cute," I mumble watching Ellis pick out a new gun.

"Don't go all soft on us Zoey," Francis utters looking on the other side of the balcony.

"It's been a long time guys, and Ellis is sweet enough..." I defend.

"Well I'm sorry Zo but we're not going with them..." Francis declares.

"Don't you think Bill would have wanted us to go with them?" I speculate turning to look at Francis. He doesn't respond and keeps his eyes focused ahead of him; I sigh and turn to look at the others. "You guys ready?" I call down to them.

"As ready as we'll ever be!" Coach calls back. We raise our guns to prepare for the hordes of zombies that are sure to soon follow.

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**Thanks for reading chapter two. Reviews are appreciated.**


	3. Leaving

**Wow, this took ages, and it seems to have a bit of everything... once again I don't own Left 4 Dead. I hope you guys enjoy it.**

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Out of the corner of my eye I notice Nick pushing the button on the generator. Didn't I say the generator needed to be filled? "Nick!" I shout, he stops pushing the button.

"What!" He yells back, obviously he's aggravated.

"I said the generator needs to be filled!"

"And where is the gas?" he says leaving the generator and comes stomping up to us below the balcony.

"I don't know, I guess there'll be gas cans scattered around somewhere..."

"Oh not this again!" Nick shouts, throwing his hands in the air and storming back over to the others. "Well that's just great, first we have to fill up the car to steal it from the mall..." he storms past them

"Nick?" Ellis calls.

"...and now we have to fill up the generator to lower the bridge to cross..." Nick storms back past them.

"Nick!" Coach says raising his voice.

"...I'm getting sick of playing scavenge and looking for these gas cans!" Nick shouts finishing his rant standing in front of them.

"NICK!" Rochelle screeches. "You're attracting the zombies!" she exclaims. We turn our gaze to the horizon to see dozens of lifeless bodies amble their way in our direction.

"Well that's just the icing on the fucking cake!" Nick exclaims throwing his head back.

"Calm the fuck down and go find those gas cans!" Francis shouts at them. The group scatters and the gun shots start.

After the first shot was fired the zombies charged at them. Shot after shot was fired at the seemingly never ending flow of zombies, freezing them in place for what felt like hours. If a single moment was wasted, they would be overwhelmed.

"Guys get the gas cans then!" I shout over the noise of gun fire.

"We don't know where they are and it's kinda hard when there are zombies everywhere!" Rochelle calls turning to face us.

"Check in the house!" I say shooting a zombie before it grabbed her, she runs into the house below us, I heard some clattering around before she remerges with a gas can in her arms.

"Ellis go check upstairs!" she commands running to the generator and pouring the can's contents in, Ellis nods and rushes inside, I hear him come up the stairs and a loud bang on the wall behind me follows, it startles me and I miss my shot just missing Nick.

"Careful there Cupcake, you almost shot me!" he yells as Ellis comes out of the house holding the gas can.

"Sorry!"

"There's none left in the house" Ellis says as he hands the gas to Rochelle. A high pitch shriek is heard coming from the distance and suddenly a Hunter jumps through the air heading for Coach, as it's about to land on him I manage to shoot it through the head, it's body instead falling to the floor in a heap.

"Thanks Zoey" I hear him say, I nod at him.

"Try around the back of the house, there's a generator back there" I say gesturing with my thumb behind me to the group below. They nod and all go around the back, meanwhile me, Francis and Louis try to pick off as many stray zombies as we can. After a minute the group come back with three gas cans, Nick, Coach and Ellis carrying them and Rochelle defending them. The guys pour two of the cans in the generator and Nick had started on the third when a familiar rumbling started.

"Shit it's a Tank! Francis shouts. The Tank comes into view between the two buildings, everyone fires at the Tank and it is shortly taken down.

"Well that was easier" Rochelle muses.

"See? It's better with seven of us-" Ellis starts before another Tank swats him away like a fly towards the house.

"Ellis!" I screech leaning fully over the railing to look at him, Louis and Francis held me back. The others open fire on the Tank.

"Z-Zoey, calm down...I-I'm fine" Ellis says getting up and brushing himself off. I release the breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Alright! This one is dead!" Nick calls out, followed by the cries of more infected.

"You guys better start getting those cans, try in the shop up there" I say to Ellis point towards the store at the top of the slope. "I think there are some up there."

"Okay, thanks Zoey." He says as he starts limping away to grab his gun. I reach into my pocket and pull out some pills, looking at them for a few seconds.

"Ellis" I utter, he stops and turns to look back at me; I throw the pills down to him. "I think you need these."He nods and flashes me a cheesy smile before taking a few and going off to get his gun.

"How many has that been?" Francis asks.

"Fifth-teen" Coach responds "One more should do it"

"Where is it?" Rochelle asks, the group start to move back behind the house when another horde is heard.

"Francis switch sides with me" I ask moving towards him

"Why? Do you want to make sure your boyfriend is alright?" He mocks.

"This isn't the time for jokes, I want to see if I can see the last gas can" I say pulling him away and standing in his place.

"Fine, whatever" Francis grumbles and switches sides with me. I shoot the zombie in the area while scanning for glimpses of orange by the store, I spot the last one close by.

"Guys, there's the gas can over there!" I shout pointing to it. Rochelle breaks away from the boys and heads to it. "You two protect the guys, I've got Rochelle" I tell Francis and Louis, they agree and we continue covering them. Rochelle gets the gas can and starts heading back; while I'm killing zombies at the bottom of the stairs, my eyes leave where Rochelle is. When I look back she's gone and the gas can is lying where she was.

"Rochelle?!" I call out looking around, I can't see her and I can't hear her. "Guys, Rochelle is missing!" I call out.

"What!" I hear Nick yell after he shoots a Spitter. "Where is she?"

"I just said she's missing, do you think I know?" I question sarcastically shooting an infected behind him.

"Well where was she last?" Coach asks nudging a zombie in front of him away before shooting it.

"Over there" I say shooting a few zombies standing near where she was.

"Guys this isn't time for idle chit chat" Louis comments.

"Ro's gone missing and there are hundreds of infected here! This isn't chit chat this is serious!" Nick yells kicking a zombie out of his way as he comes towards us.

"Nick watch out!" Ellis yells too late as a Charger rams into Nick, picking him up and slamming him down on the ground repeatedly. Ellis quickly pulls a crowbar off his hip and strikes the Charger, killing it instantly.

"Oh god...that didn't help" Nick wheezes, as he tries to stand up the familiar rumble is back.

"This just keeps getting better..." Louis comments "There's two injured men" he says gesturing to Nick and Ellis "one missing woman, one last gas can and by the looks of it..." he says squinting into the distance "...two more Tanks are heading your way."

"This isn't working" I mumble leaving my place on the balcony and walking towards the bridge.

"Zoey what are you doing?" Francis asks in a condescending voice.

"I'm going down to help them, like we should of in the first place, and I recommend you do too." I argue grabbing hold of the railing.

"How is that going to help them? Besides, Louis can't get down and we can't leave him up here." I stop, my grip tightening on the railing.

"Then I suggest coming down once the bridge is lowered, we're going with them." I declare.

"Zoey we can't-"

"We can and we are, we've been offered, plus traveling in a bigger group equals more protection."

"Yeah but more mouths to feed." Francis reasons.

"Either way it's better if we go with them, we can't stay here and it's better to leave now then wait." I retort.

"Uh, sorry to ruin your little argument but...THERE ARE TWO FUCKING TANKS COMING STRAIGHT FOR US!" Nick yells, I turn my head to look at him then back to Francis, Francis looks at me for a second before twisting his head towards the approaching Tanks. I sling my gun on my back and pull myself back over the railing, as I start running to the other side of the bridge where we met the others the gunfire starts; I slide down the ladder and climb over the other side of the railing, I lower myself down as much as I can before I jump across. I land hard on the floor and hurry to the elevator. Noticing the elevator is at the bottom I decide to risk it and jump down. Again I lower myself before jumping and land hard on the floor, a sharp pain shoots through my legs but I fight through it. Pulling my gun off my back I head out of the elevator, limping slightly from the pain in my legs, and begin shooting at one of the two Tanks.

I barely miss the Tanks' attacks, I didn't think being away from the action for a week could be this bad. But eventually we kill them.

"Well it's nice for you to join us Cupcake" Nick remarks, I glare at him.

"There's no time for witty comments we need to find Rochelle." I respond walking away from the men in the direction of where Rochelle was last, they follow and we start to hear faint moaning, as we get closer we find Rochelle lying on the floor, her shirt ripped and covered in blood.

"Ro!" Ellis yells as we jog over.

"What happened?" I ask.

"First it was a Jockey...it dragged me over here... before I threw it off but then... there was this Hunter... but it was like a child... It didn't do any serious damage but...it took a while before I got him off" she breaths heavily, either out of breath or exhausted.

"C'mon Ro, let's get you up" Nick says as he slides his hand behind her neck and pulls her into a sitting position, he then moves her left arm over his shoulder and helps her up the slope with help from Coach.

"I'll get the last gas can" I utter. "Ellis come with me, just in case" I say.

"O-okay" he mutters and we head up to get the last gas can.

"I hope this helps" Nick says after bandaging Rochelle up to the best of his ability as we get back with the last gas can.

"Yeah, thanks" she thanks, me and Ellis stop in front of the generator; it seems the hordes of zombies have stopped.

"Do you want to do it?" I ask Ellis holding the gas can out to him, I notice a slight red tinge dust his cheeks prior to him taking the gas can from me, our fingers brush lightly and his cheeks get redder, I feel the heat rush to my cheeks slightly at his shyness but I brushed it off once I removed my finger from the can.

He pours it in and the bridge starts lowering, Ellis heads off to the car and we wait.

"So are you coming back up?" Francis asks me.

"So are you coming down?" I question sarcastically, Francis sighs.

"Zoey. I hate moving-"

"You hate a lot of things Francis. But I think this will be good for us, even if we are traveling a bit longer than we hoped I think that this is it. Trust me" I beg, Francis sighs again.

"Fine, we'll come down, but send the elevator up" a feel a smile come to my face for the first time in months and I rush over to the elevator getting in it before sending it up.

When we reach the bottom Ellis is ready and waiting with the car.

"How are we all gonna fit in that?" Francis questions.

"Well someone is gonna have to sit on someone's lap" Ellis responds.

"I guess Ro can sit on my lap" Nick proposes "...Cos she's injured and all that."

"Four can squeeze in the back" Coach adds, we nod and head for the car, Francis get's in first and then Louis, as I'm about to get in a thought suddenly strikes me.

"Zoey are you getting in?" Francis asks.

"Yeah, just give me a minute" I say rushing off towards the generator. I search around for a few seconds but then I find him. Bill. His body is propped up against a part of machinery, an old cigarette hanging loosely from his dead lips, I couch down in front of his body.

"Hi Bill...I guess this is goodbye forever now, I always figured that if we stayed here you've always be with us, even if it was just your body...I'll never forget you." Slowly I reach out and remove the beret from his head and shove it in my pocket. "I hope you don't mind...I just was something to remember you by." I give him one last look before leaving and heading to the car.

"What were you doing?" Louis asks once I get in the car.

"Just saying bye to Bill..." Silence fills the car "Are we ready to leave?" I ask, slowly Ellis nods and the car start off down the road. And hopefully somewhere better.

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**I hope you guys liked it, thanks for reading and please review and favorite and all that. **


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